Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Nectar is killing (arguably) its best redemption – Caffe Nero drinks

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Caffe Nero is, perhaps oddly, the best value Nectar redemption partner. Not Avios.

400 Nectar points will get you a voucher (in the form of a QR code, saved in the Nectar app, to be scanned in-store) for ANY hot or iced drink, of any size.

With most drinks now costing over £3.50, at least in London, you are certain to get more than the usual 0.5p per Nectar point.

Redeem Nectar points at Caffe Nero

A regular Americano costs £3.60 in Central London. Using 400 Nectar points instead (which is the equivalent of 250 Avios) means you’d need to value Avios at more than 1.44p before it made more sense to transfer them there.

(There’s no point ordering a regular drink, of course, because the voucher is good for any size. Make it a large one, even if you’d usually have a regular coffee when using cash!)

Go for anything more exciting than a regular Americano – for example a £5+ frappe, or a £5.45 tiramisu latte – and you’d need to value an Avios at 2p+ before it made more sense to convert.

Caffe Nero is leaving Nectar

Unfortunately, you are running out of time to take advantage of this deal.

According to the Caffe Nero page of the Nectar website here, the last day to redeem Nectar points for Caffe Nero drinks vouchers is 18th August.

Vouchers are good for 12 months so you may want to stock up.

If you regularly buy expensive drinks (£4+) from Caffe Nero, it may even be worth transferring some American Express Membership Rewards points into Nectar. It is 1:1, so if you are getting a £4+ drink then you’re getting at least 1p per Membership Rewards points.

Redeem Nectar points at Caffe Nero

How do you redeem Nectar points for Caffe Nero drinks?

The deal is a bit fiddly to find in the Nectar app. You need to click the ‘Partners’ tab at the bottom. Type ‘Nero’ into the search box and the deal will pop up.

You can order drinks vouchers via your phone as long as you have access to your email, as 2FA is in place. Click on the ‘Saved’ tab in the app menu and it will take you to your voucher bar codes for scanning in the store.

What happened to the Marriott Bonvoy / Nectar transfer deal?

Last November, Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar announced that they would be launching a transfer partnership in ‘early 2025’.

It didn’t happen on schedule, clearly, but it IS still coming.

If this would be of interest to you, you may want to hold off converting Nectar points for free coffee until nearer the end date of 18th August in case the Marriott partnership launches before then.

Thanks to Johnie for flagging in our forum.

Comments (111)

  • cranzle says:

    Nero also changed their loyalty system. You no longer receive any rewards on discounted purchases (eg Three or Octoplus etc)

    • Carl says:

      You get one stamp when using your own reusable cup with Octoplus, Three and Vitality. I get two stamps a week from my free coffee from Vitality and Octopus.

  • Swiss Jim says:

    The problem I find with Nectar/Nero is knowing which ones have been used. The vouchers don’t disappeared once spent on a coffee. Or maybe that’s just confused old me…

  • NigelthePensioner says:

    Oh dear!

  • Jan M says:

    There are so many ways of getting discounted Nero coffees (not just Three and Octopus, also 25% off through Compare the Market) that makes the Nectar transfer value really difficult to assess.

    • Andrew J says:

      Totally agree, 25% off is the norm, so the redemption value isn’t quite as high in reality.

    • NicktheGreek says:

      Via my Coffee club membership, which I went for this year having not used the Meerkat, I get 25% off. It cost £25. I get a large cappuccino in Manchester for £3 now. So if I was to use nectar I’m sacrificing £2.50 worth of Avios. Still in front on the 1p valuation, but not as strong. It’ll be a shame to see it go, as it did feel like a (small) genuine steal.

      • AndyGWP says:

        wouldn’t it be cheaper to just get a cheapo travel insurance policy via. Meerkat (or do you get other perks with your coffee club membership?)

    • Sandgrounder says:

      Discounts for carers offer a year’s free tastecard when you sign up (for free). A quick and easy joining process, you don’t need to submit any ID.

    • John says:

      I am a member of a survey panel that gives 50p in Nero credit per week for doing nothing. Can get up to £6/week if I can be bothered to do the surveys. The only other place that I (personally) have any interest in cashing out this credit at is Argos, but I can generate Argos vouchers from other sources.

      I wouldn’t even pay £1 of real money for the piss served by Nero, however some of my clients seem to like it as a meeting place, so I go there and buy them a drink with my “free” credit.

  • Dezza says:

    Do you think it’s Nectar killing it off or a Nero decision to?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      Both have their reasons

      Nectar to keep the points within Sainsburys

      Nero because if people are going for expensive drinks they end up losing out as they will only be paid a set amount by nectar.

      • Lumma says:

        A £5+ coffee still costs Nero pennies in ingredients. As long as they’re getting something in the region of the £2 the Nectar points are worth in Sainsbury’s then i don’t see why they’d want to get rid.

        Even for a Sainsbury’s shopper who religiously buys every bonus point item each week, it’s difficult to get much more than two “free” coffees a week.

      • Ken says:

        If Nectar truly worry about keeping points within Sainsbury’s, then they might as well give up.

    • Ken says:

      I’d frankly be amazed if it wasn’t down just to cafe Nero.

      The idea is that offers like this, Octopus and other discounts gets people into the shop and enough of them buy a cake or sandwich or whatever, and it also gets them into the routine of going. The trouble starts when too many will never spend on anything else & and everyone starts thinking , ‘why am I the mug paying full price’.

      Sure, they get the money nectar pays, but too many think that’s pure marginal revenue that has no impact on anything else. It does. It means longer queues, tables left uncleared, etc unless you employ more staff.

      The same error people make about how priority pass is a win for all parties. Too many of them and no one wins.

  • HughM says:

    The Nectar-Nero offer comes and goes. Gone for ever? Hopefully not.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      I don’t recall there being a ‘get your voucher date” limit previously when there had a lacuna in the offer.

      So the wording now does make it seem like it’s (soon to be) gone,

  • PeterK says:

    Cafe Nero free vouchers via the Octoplus app are also more difficult to access as there is now a daily cap on the number of free vouchers.

  • paul says:

    Add the £3.60 to £5.50 coffees to all the other unnecessary, frivolous expenses and you can understand why so many can’t get on the property ladder.

    Poor darlings.

    • Erico1875 says:

      No 100% mortgages like we got in 80s. 8 x salary for a flat and more stringent lending rules
      A coffee isn’t going to make any difference

    • Mike Hunt says:

      It is disingenuous to squander your money on Netflix, Amazon Prime, random Amazon purchases, coffee shop coffees, takeaways, cocktails- whilst complaining that you can’t save for your deposit

      I saved hard and went without frivolous items to buy three houses, main residence plus two buy to lets.

      • Rob says:

        That’s a mistake. I actually regret not spending more money when I was in my 20s. Once I hit my 30s I was overrun with it but the kids had come along and it was impossible to spend.

        Being a wealthy pensioner is relatively pointless and not really a life goal to aim for! The rational thing to do is die in debt because your debts die with you.

        • Scott says:

          Sounds like ‘Die with Zero’, by Bill Perkins, would be of interest if you’ve not already read it: https://amzn.eu/d/6KGIuos

          • MKCol says:

            @Scott intriguing, have purchased as we’ve begun talking in our household about switching things around to die with debt.

        • Novice says:

          Exactly. Health is everything and you are more likely to be able to do everything when young. I don’t care about retirement because I don’t think I would live that long. I would rather live an awesome lifestyle now. Thankfully I have always been good with money so I am able to do whatever I want.

        • Swiss Jim says:

          Though your kids don’t. Hopefully.

        • Aston100 says:

          “The rational thing to do is die in debt because your debts die with you.”

          Unfortunately so many people have this mindset.

          • ken says:

            @Aston100

            If this was the case, why are there so many adverts for funeral plans or over 60’s life insurance on TV ?

          • MKCol says:

            What’s wrong with that mindset @Aston100?

          • John says:

            Inheritance tax incentivises giving everything away a decade before your likelihood of death starts to rise. Also care fees but I suppose hfp readers are less likely to qualify for council funding anyway

      • Mayfair Mike says:

        Totally agree – its ironic that those squealing about not being able to get on the housing ladder have no problem frittering away money on expensive coffees, gym memberships, deliveroos, vapes etc. Its a shame as they have been brainwashed by the insta crowd and that “experiences” > material possessions.
        I know which one I and my kids prefer.

        • Rob says:

          What’s the point of your kids going without when you’re so loaded? Makes no sense 🙂 Get them down the gym so they will live a long and healthy life to maximise your inheritance 🙂

          • Novice says:

            I’m with Rob on this one. I don’t like to talk about it but this is personal experience; money is not everything. If you don’t have good health, you can have millions and still everything will be very hard or sometimes impossible to do. It’s better to live a full life doing everything you want while you have health. I hate this idea of ppl banging on about saving for future. What if you get hit by the bus at age 65, never lived a good life because you wanted to save for your future?

      • G says:

        Wee woo wee woo ignorant boomer detected.

        Skipping a daily £4.5 coffee and the highest end netflix subscription over 12 years would get you £52,000.

        Even on a decent London salary of 60K or so for a young professional – your max affordability would only be 300-350k that’s a one bed, studio, a share of freedhold or a 2 bed shared ownership in London.

        Home prices are 6-7x annual income in nearly every part of the country now; 9x higher for London…

          • ken says:

            or we could use the ONS statistics…

            In 2024, just 9% of local authorities had homes bought for less than five times workers’ earnings on average and were therefore deemed affordable.

            At the start of the series in 1997 it was 88% of areas.

            For those of us who bought decades ago (probably bar the 1988 Miras withdrawal), its easy to do without for the first couple of years of buying your first house. Inflation & pay rises are your friend.

        • jj says:

          My three kids, still in their 20s and with student loans, all own their own properties without any help from the bank of mum and dad. Two own nice family homes and are starting families in security and comfort. Many of their friends do, too. It can be done on a relatively modest salary if you are frugal and sensible. Besides owning a home, one has even paid off his student loan in entirety to reduce his future ‘tax’ burden.

          I could have helped with deposits, but I thought they were better learning to be financially independent, so I gave them advice instead. Their biggest act of frugality was being willing to return home to live with us after university while they saved for a deposit, and the only support that we gave them was to offer free board and lodging while they saved.

          Their property-owning friends all made the same lifestyle choice: live with mum and dad, and save, save, save. Friends who sought glamorous, highly paid job in the City have no chance of ever owning a property due to the cost of the London rental market.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

            “and the only support that we gave them was to offer free board and lodging while they saved.”

            Which in effect amounted to several hundred quid a month they weren’t otherwise paying out in rent, utilities and buying their own food.

            And allowing them to live rent free with you to allow them to save is in effect the same as you helping them with a deposit!

          • Rob says:

            London rents are really low. My £900k Wapping riverside flat was getting just over £2k per month. Service charge is £6k per year (19th century buildings with water lapping outside cost a lot to maintain) so that’s 3 months rent gone.

            To buy it, the interest alone is far more the rent and you’d be on the hook for the service charge and repairs. You’d pay a fortune in stamp duty and you’d lose money each year on the capital value due to the long term fall in London prices. I don’t have the Wapping data but Chelsea / South Ken is back to 2013 prices and still falling.

          • jj says:

            The family home is already owned, and nothing would persuade us to downsize or take in a lodger. Council tax, water, heating, internet, insurance, repairs, new furniture, gardening costs, decorating costs, etc don’t change when your kids move back home. So, free board and lodging saved the kids hundreds of pounds per month but cost us next to nothing – OK, my Aldi bill went up a a few quid each week, but it’s pennies.

            That’s what I mean by frugality. As a combined family unit, our living costs were much lower than if the kids had moved our, and that frugality created three home deposits.

          • jj says:

            Rob – I’m afraid that you couldn’t have chosen a worse property to use as an example. Flats have underperformed the housing market for decades, largely because the build rate is a higher proportion of stock than for other housing types. New builds and new conversions attract a new-build premium of c10% that gradually unwinds over about ten years. The delta between London properties and the rest of the country had become unsustainable by 2013 and was certain to close over time. And London has lost its relative edge due to a combination of post-GFC financial services over-regulation, flight of foreign capital due to taxation, rising crime, and Brexit (which has affected London more than most of the UK).

            Rental yields remain strong in much of the UK.

          • CJD says:

            “My three kids, still in their 20s and with student loans, all own their own properties without any help from the bank of mum and dad.”

            “Their biggest act of frugality was being willing to return home to live with us after university while they saved for a deposit, and the only support that we gave them was to offer free board and lodging while they saved.”

            So the Bank of Mum and Dad did help out your kids, likely to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds?

            Your kids are to be commended for saving money towards a deposit but it’s completely disingenuous to claim that they had no help to do so. How would they have fared saving for a deposit if they’d had to pay rent at market rates?

      • ken says:

        A netflix subscription costs from £6 a month.

        A cheap LP (In the City, The Jam) was £2.99 in 1981.
        Other albums were a bit more.

        A newspaper (broadsheet) was about 70p in the mid 1980’s

        A video (overnight rental) was about £2 unless it was a film a few years old.
        Another 50p if you didn’t rewind it.

        I had no university fees plus had a full grant (£612 a term). Half board at University was £300 a term. I could afford to have a good few beers every week, go to a football match every other week & saw plenty of gigs.

        You could also get unemployment benefit and housing benefit in the summer if you wern’t working.

        First house (terraced 3 bed) bought on single earnings, less than average wage, £2k deposit, cost £44,950. Those house go for about £320k now.

        Young people today, don’t know how lucky they are.

        • Rob says:

          Exactly. Lucky sods leaving uni with £45k of debt. Poor old me made money by going to uni, with the full grant, no fees and a year of income from my sandwich course.

          My best mate left uni, got a sub-£20k pa trade journalism job, bought a tiny flat in New Cross, sold it 3 years later for £150k profit (a lot in the late 90s) and promptly went into semi retirement in Devon aged 26, on the logic he’d just got 12 years of post tax salary in one go. He hasn’t done a proper days work for a company in the 30 years since although he has various little sidelines.

          • Lumma says:

            The £45k of uni debt is the biggest problem no one talks about. Increases by over £150 a month at the current interest rate for student loans. Even if you walk straight into a £70k a year job, it’s gonna be around £350 a month taken from your net pay for about 20 years

      • Fennec says:

        Hopefully ‘Rachel from Accounts’ will get her finger out and tax the BTL landlords til their pips squeak That alone would help First Time buyers more than not buying the occasional £3 coffee .

    • John says:

      The majority of people I see in Nero are 50+, however I only visit Nero in outer London suburbs as I use it as a client meeting place.

      • Rob says:

        Nero is the only coffee chain with good chairs, that’s why.

        The kids are all in Blank Street.

    • NorskSaint says:

      How completely tone deaf….Yes frivolous expenses are to blame. Not the average salary being £37.5k vs an average house price of £265k.

      • Rob says:

        I have a friend who makes comments like this – even though he downsized his London house and gave both his kids £1m each to buy a property.

    • broomy23 says:

      I am of the age you are targeting with your comment. I utilise the free Nero code each with with Octopus and probably spend £10 per month on coffee when I’m out.

      We have a Nespresso machine at home and I use the Starbucks pods which are of course bought on discount!

      Not every young person spends their money on coffee, and good luck getting on the property ladder even in Norfolk. Let’s just say the ladder was pulled by the generation above

      • Novice says:

        The truth is that the vast majority of young people who own homes have had help from their parents now including myself. My family is decently wealthy do my parents helped all their kids with deposits. We didn’t have to pay for any deposits. That is the reality now. I work for myself in the creative industry so don’t have a set amount salary. One of my paintings might go for £5000 and another might go for £500. My writing is the same. So, it would have been hard to get a property without bank of mum and dad. Although all my siblings have good well paid jobs, my parents wanted to treat everyone same and they have more outgoings than me as they have kids so then again bank of mum and dad helped. This is why only well off kids have their own properties now. It’s thanks to mum and dad.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          “have had help from their parents “

          Even parents like jj are helping their kids out even if they don’t see giving them free board and lodging as helping financially.

    • Ken says:

      Exactly.

      If they could just stop drinking coffee and give up their £8 a month Netflix subscription, they would easily have enough for a deposit in 12 years.

    • HampshireHog says:

      In particular it’s the subscription model that many businesses are shifting to which results in an endless monthly drain from your bank account. If you knock this on the head and buy stuff outright you’re half way to being able to save.

    • CJD says:

      Thanks for the financial advice, by cutting outy Netflix subscription I should have enough for a deposit in around 135 more years.

      • Londonsteve says:

        I don’t understand the aversion some people exhibit to others paying for a Netflix subscription. Anyone at all, especially someone with a job is entitled to some downtime, nay, it’s essential to keep mind and body together. A judiciously used Netflix sub is a very wise investment with a vast array of high quality content providing endless hours of entertainment at home. It probably saves a fortune in the long run as the protagonist would otherwise be tempted to head out and spend a lot more money, including on things that boomers would otherwise view as erudite, like going to the theatre, the opera or even just a cinema ticket.

        20 years ago I don’t recall anyone complaining that people were wasting their money going to the cinema when they could be sat at home watching ITV for free, despite the fact that a typical cinema ticket back then cost more than a monthly Netflix subscription today.

        The expectation that people should tie themselves up in knots while making extreme sacrifices to ‘get on the property ladder’ is both misplaced and poor financial advice. Boomers benefited from phenomenal rises in the value of property, any sacrifices therefore proved to be a worthwhile one financially. Today, all someone will gain is a roof over their head, the value of bricks and mortar is unlikely to increase in real terms and may well fall longer term as the country’s economic engines lose steam. Sure, putting a roof over one’s head is a noble enough goal and is a sufficient prize, but unreasonable sacrifices (i.e. watch ITV instead of having a Netflix sub and whatever you do, for heaven’s sake don’t leave the house unless it’s to visit a free museum) require a decade or more of living a life even those in the third world would consider grim. That’s if such sacrifices can even generate enough cash to save for a deposit and then meet the income criteria for a mortgage. For most people on a modest income, they can’t, no matter what you do.

Leave a Reply to Swiss Jim Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please click here to read our data protection policy before submitting your comment

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.